Quote of the Day: “God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.” – Franz Kafka
Photo by: Jacqueline O’Gara
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
For years, California was slated to undertake the world’s largest dam removal project in order to free the Klamath River to flow as it had done for thousands of years.
Now, as the project nears completion, imagery is percolating out of Klamath showing the waterway’s dramatic transformation, and they are breathtaking to behold.
Incredibly, the project has been nearly completed on schedule and under budget, and recently concluded with the removal of two dams, Iron Gate and Copco 1. Small “cofferdams” which helped divert water for the main dams’ construction, still need to be removed.
The river, along which salmon and trout had migrated and bred for centuries, can flow freely between Lake Ewauna in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean for the first time since the dams were constructed between 1903 and 1962.
“This is a monumental achievement—not just for the Klamath River but for our entire state, nation, and planet,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “By taking down these outdated dams, we are giving salmon and other species a chance to thrive once again, while also restoring an essential lifeline for tribal communities who have long depended on the health of the river.”
“We had a really incredible moment to share with tribes as we watched the final cofferdams be broken,” Ren Brownell, Klamath River Renewal Corp. public information officer, told SFGATE. “So we’ve officially returned the river to its historic channel at all the dam sites. But the work continues.”
“The dams that have divided the basin are now gone and the river is free,” Frankie Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said in a tribal news release from late August. “Our sacred duty to our children, our ancestors, and for ourselves, is to take care of the river, and today’s events represent a fulfillment of that obligation.”
The Yurok Tribe has lived along the Klamath River forever, and it was they who led the decades-long campaign to dismantle the dams.
BACK STORY OF THE DAM: Largest Dam Removal in History Begins Restoring Salmon and California Tribal Way of Life
At first the water was turbid, brown, murky, and filled with dead algae—discharges from riverside sediment deposits and reservoir drainage. However, Brownell said the water quality will improve over a short time span as the river normalizes.
“I think in September, we may have some Chinook salmon and steelhead moseying upstream and checking things out for the first time in over 60 years,” said Bob Pagliuco, a marine habitat resource specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July.
“Based on what I’ve seen and what I know these fish can do, I think they will start occupying these habitats immediately. There won’t be any great numbers at first, but within several generations—10 to 15 years—new populations will be established.”
Ironically, a news release from the NOAA states that the simplification of the Klamath River by way of the dams actually made it harder for salmon and steelhead to survive and adapt to climate change.
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“When you simplify the habitat as we did with the dams, salmon can’t express the full range of their life-history diversity,” said NOAA Research Fisheries Biologist Tommy Williams.
“The Klamath watershed is very prone to disturbance. The environment throughout the historical range of Pacific salmon and steelhead is very dynamic. We have fires, floods, earthquakes, you name it. These fish not only deal with it well, it’s required for their survival by allowing the expression of the full range of their diversity. It challenges them. Through this, they develop this capacity to deal with environmental changes.”
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A painting that was found in a basement signed with the name “Picasso,” but that was dismissed, thrust into a cheap frame, hung in the family house, and then in a restaurant, has finally been recognized as an authentic piece by the Spanish artist.
The value is already estimated to be $6 million, but if recognized by the Pablo Picasso Foundation in Paris, it could be worth twice or thrice that much.
The painting is believed to be an asymmetrical image of Dora Maar, who was Picasso’s lover at a time when he spent a period on the Italian island of Capri, where in the 1950s, Luigi Lo Rosso, a local pawnbroker who used to comb dumps and abandoned houses for treasure, found it in the basement of an empty villa.
According to the story, reported stateside by CNN, Lo Rosso believed it to be authentic, but his wife was less impressed, and so Luigi stuck it in a frame and gave it to her as a present to her great chagrin.
Luigi’s son, Andrea, wasn’t even born at the time. He told CNN that his mother took the Picasso and another canvas covered in dust and lime her husband had found and washed them with detergent as if they were carpets.
In college, the younger Lo Rosso came upon another piece of Picasso’s depicting Dora Maar in an art history textbook, and learned he was in Capri at the time when it was made. Coming home, he told his mom they may have something special on their hands.
It took decades, but because Andrea went through the proper channels—namely treating it as if it were stolen and registering it with the patrimony police, more attention was given to it than the experts Andrea had first contracted were willing to offer.
Locked in a police vault in Milan until 2019, the quest for authentication of the work was concluded when Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist for a patrimony court in Milan, worked for several months to authenticate the Picasso signature in the corner—it was 100% real.
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Andrea hasn’t stopped at Altieri’s examination, nor on the word of Luca Gentile Canal Marcante, an art expert and honorary president of the Swiss-based art restoration non-profit Arcadia Foundation, who also says it is doubtlessly authentic.
Andrea is seeking the approval of the Picasso Foundation in Paris—something his father always hoped might come to pass.
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“I’m happy but let’s wait to toast, there is still one step to take before we consider this incredible story over,” Andrea Lo Rosso said.
“I continue to work as I do every day in the hope that even in Paris they will be convinced of the authenticity of the painting.”
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A couple who quit their jobs and sold all their belongings to travel in a campervan has completed an epic four-year adventure around the world.
Along with avoiding their work at Britain’s National Health Service just months before pandemic controls started, they amassed a huge following on social media through their YouTube channel Tread The Globe.
Chris and Marianne Fisher set off on their journey in January 2020 in a 20-year-old Fiat Ducato campervan called “Trudy” with 40,000 miles which they bought for about $21,000 two years earlier.
The pair said they realized they needed ‘to live for now,’ so they sold everything inside their 6-bedroom property in Telford, England, and rented it out to help pay for their journey.
In total, the couple in their mid-50s traveled 67,000 miles and visited 29 countries logging 28 million YouTube views and 180,000 subscribers.
“I think when you’re sitting at a desk looking out of the window and there’s a brick wall, whether it’s a weekend away or… a whole craziness like we’ve done, I would encourage anyone to just go out,” said Marianne. “If you’ve got something that’s stopping you, a fear, message me and I will put you straight.”
“It’s been phenomenal. Different places, different cultures—everybody’s given us a warm welcome around the world.”
After leaving Telford, Chris and Marianne crossed Europe before arriving in Turkey just in time for COVID-19 lockdowns. The pair settled on becoming Turkish residents for 18 months before making the decision to ship the van to South Carolina and drive across the United States.
Arriving in San Francisco, the couple headed to Vancouver at the start of a loop around Alaska. They swam in the Arctic Ocean after driving 1,000 miles along a dirt road called the Dempster Highway which leads to the most northerly road point of Canada.
The pair then crossed back into the US, and drove part of Route 66 into California then down into Mexico.
After a few months of exploring, the pair shipped the campervan from LA to Japan. They stayed for 3 months in the Land of the Rising Sun, then jumped on a car ferry to South Korea but got something like ‘traveler’s block,’ that left them unable to decide where to go next.
Refused a visa for China, Chris and Marianne toured Malaysia and Thailand before visiting India and Pakistan. Originally they planned to ship the campervan to Saudi Arabia via Karachi, but were told that the country doesn’t allow right-hand drive vehicles. Instead, the pair went to South Africa to tour a new continent.
They headed north through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana before finally taking one last ferry home from Durban after four and a half years of traveling and living in their van.
“We had the mad idea to see if we could wild camp in Las Vegas and see a show, and we managed to stick in a hotel car park and then went to a show and Cirque du Soleil,” said Chris, picking out some brief highlights in a conversation with British media company SWNS.
“We drove past Mount Fuji. Passed the Taj Mahal in India, and the nature of seeing elephants walk in front of your van in Kruger National Park and having leopards and lions walking around was fantastic.”
In early September, more than 100 people lined the streets of Telford when they arrived back in their van. The couple said they were ‘overwhelmed’ with the support they had received and are already planning their next adventure.
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“I really feel if we do nothing else in our life, we’ve done something fantastic,” said Marianne. “We’re so happy to be home and see such a warm welcome on a rainy day—and so sad that this adventure’s over, but there’s going to be more.”
When the couple purchased their van, it had approximately 40,000 miles on the odometer. But, now after their trip around the world, the pair say Trudy has racked up more than 137,000 miles, not including 24,000 at sea.
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“We’ve always loved travel and planned when we retired one day that we would go and spend our retirement traveling,” Chris added “You get to that point in life where you realize you’re not going to live forever.”
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Through their Tread The Globe channel, the couple documented their trip online and soon built up a legion of followers and fans as they tried to live on £27 a day.
“There’s a real impact and it feels really nice that we’re giving positivity because we’re just about showing the world is a beautiful place.”
WATCH some highlights of their trip below…
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The everyday effects of sleep, exercise, heart rate, and mood—both good and bad—could linger in our brains for over two weeks, according to a pioneering study.
Finnish researchers tracked one person’s brain and behavioral activity for five months using brain scans and data from wearable devices and smartphones.
“We wanted to go beyond isolated events,” says research leader Ana Triana. “Our behavior and mental states are constantly shaped by our environment and experiences. Yet, we know little about the response of brain functional connectivity to environmental, physiological, and behavioral changes on different timescales, from days to months.”
The study found that our brains do not respond to daily life in immediate, isolated bursts. Instead, brain activity evolves in response to sleep patterns, physical activity, mood, and respiration rate over many days.
This suggests that a workout or a restless night even from last week could still affect your brain—and therefore your attention, cognition, and memory—well into next week.
Though the study wasn’t focused exclusively on physical activity, the results speak to what cardiovascular exercise guru Dr. Benjamin Levine recently said on a popular health and fitness podcast about how exercise should best be thought of as part of one’s “personal hygiene.”
Physical activity was also found in the Finnish experiment to positively influence the way brain regions interact, potentially impacting memory and cognitive flexibility. Even subtle shifts in mood and heart rate left lasting imprints for up to fifteen days.
The research is unusual, a release from Aalto University suggests, because few brain studies involve detailed monitoring over days and weeks.
“The use of wearable technology was crucial,” says Triana. “Brain scans are useful tools, but a snapshot of someone lying still for half an hour can only show so much. Our brains do not work in isolation.”
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Triana was herself the subject of the research, monitored as she went about her daily life. Her unique role as both lead author and study participant added complexity, but also brought firsthand insights into how best to maintain research integrity over several months of personalized data collection.
“At the beginning, it was exciting and a bit stressful. Then, routine settles in and you forget,” says Triana. Data from the devices and twice-weekly brain scans were complemented by qualitative data from mood surveys.
The researchers identified two distinct response patterns: a short-term wave lasting under seven days and a long-term wave of up to fifteen days. The former reflects rapid adaptations, like how focus is impacted by poor sleep, but how it also recovers quickly. The long wave suggests more gradual, lasting effects, particularly in areas tied to attention and memory.
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The study is also a proof-of-concept for patient research. Tracking brain changes in real-time could help detect neurological disorders early, especially mental health conditions where subtle signs might be missed.
“Linking brain activity with physiological and environmental data could revolutionize personalized healthcare, opening doors for earlier interventions and better outcomes,” says Triana in conclusion.
SHARE This Pioneering Experiment With Your Gym Buddies…
Quote of the Day: “Never a lip is curved with pain that can’t be kissed into smiles again.” – Bret Harte
Photo by: George Coletrain
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Among the sandstone hills and boulders of Madagascar’s Isalo National Park, the curious archaeological site of Teniky has puzzled researchers for decades.
These rock-cut niches, once believed to be a makeshift shelter for shipwrecked Portuguese sailors, have now been reinterpreted as a sort of Persian Plymouth Rock, founded by religious settlers looking to practice their religion in peace.
Bold theories require robust evidence, and a dedicated Swiss team working at the Teniky site has turned up at least enough to dismantle the shipwrecked sailors theory.
Zoroastrianism was the faith of the early Persian Empire. Established by the Ancient Iranian prophet Zarathustra, it is a dualistic theology that acknowledges both the creative and destructive forces in the universe and holds fire as a sacred symbol. With worshippers in Iran, Azerbaijan, and India, it survives as one of the oldest formalized faiths.
Guido Schreurs, an archaeologist at Switzerland’s University of Bern, has visited the site several times, and was the first to propose that the enigmatic rock-cut niches bear an uncanny similarity to those used in Classical Persia as burial coffers for the dead, according to the Zoroastrian tradition.
For starters, the niches are completely unlike anything found in Malagasy or East African antiquity, and further, the earliest carbon-dated organic remains at the Teniky site indicate habitation as early as ten centuries ago, long before the Portuguese established the route to India.
The scope of the site is also significantly greater than one would expect lost sailors requiring temporary shelter would build. The total area of the site’s architectural features and masonry is about 300,000 square feet, and consists of man-made terraces, rock-cut niches in the steep cliffs, and a rock shelter delimited by walls consisting of carved sandstone blocks.
Complicating the matter further, pottery shards found at Teniky have their origin in Southeast Asia and China suggesting that whoever inhabited Teniky would have had contact with the maritime trade routes that connected Africa and West Asia to the Orient.
But Teniky sits about as far from the ocean as it’s possible to be on the island.
There’s no evidence of agriculture, and no human remains. It’s no wonder the title of the research paper published by Schreurs based on his years of work is “Enigmatic architecture at an archaeological site in southern Madagascar.”
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Schreurs, according to National Geographic, never bought the Portuguese hypothesis. His research tentatively proposes that Teniky was actually inhabited by a colony of Zoroastrians who departed Iran in the centuries following its conversion to Islam.
By the 10th century when Teniky was founded, the geographical understanding of Eurasia and Africa throughout the Arab world was unparalleled, and it included knowledge of Madagascar—known then as the semi-mythical island of Wakwak.
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In Zoroastrianism, it’s believed that burying the dead is a defilement of the Earth. Instead, the citizenry would place their deceased in open-air niches cut into the walls of a religious compound known as a necropolis.
Schreurs shows how nearly identical the stone cutting is between Persian necropoli in the Fars Province of Iran and the rock-cut niches of Teniky. The problem is that no bones have been found at Teniky, though Schreurs suggests it could be because they were taken by Malagasy folk for possibly religious purposes.
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Then, there’s the question of why the site was abandoned. Sections of the sandstone walls are built in a way that suggests a defensive stance. Were the settlers there under attack?
“But against whom?” Schreurs asks. Fortunately for us, Schreurs and his 16-strong team are preparing for another research trip to Teniky in 2025, when maybe some of these intriguing questions will be answered.
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From Washington state comes the story of a senior citizen being saved by his senior canine, who risked her life obstructing traffic in order to find help.
On September 25th, the unnamed, 84-year-old owner of this beautiful pooch named Gita, fell, hurt his leg, and couldn’t move.
Gita then ran down to the main road where she stood on the paving lines waiting for someone to stop.
That someone was Deputy Wright, who was patrolling that particular area of Stevens County. Seeing neither house nor owner, Wright alighted on the road to try and get Gita into his patrol car, but the dog wouldn’t budge.
Visiting nearby residences, Wright couldn’t identify the dog’s owner.
“Sensing something amiss, Wright went back to the dog which was now lying on the centerline,” a statement from the Sheriff’s office read.
Wright tried to move the dog yet again, but this time she took off up a steep, unmarked, poorly traveled side road.
“Wright followed the dog, and it led him to a small summer cabin. He began checking around the area and observed an elderly male lying on the ground calling for help a short distance from the cabin. The 84-year-old male, who also had other medical conditions needing regular medications, had fallen and injured his leg. He had laid there for hours and may have had serious consequences if he had not been found.”
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“We credit Gita for saving his life that day. The loyalty and heroism of our furry friends never cease to amaze us,” the office wrote.
Second-cousin of the injured man, Pat Lolavera, praised Deputy Wright for following his instincts, and Gita for her incredible intelligence and dedication.
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Commentors hoped they’d see more of the story on CBS Evening News, or the Fox & Friends Animal Hour
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During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.
Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.
Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.
Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, study coauthor Dr. Elaine Solowey, a researcher emerita at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.
Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew, the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date. It narrowed down the age of the almost 10-centuries-old seed to between the years 993 and 1202.
Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.
Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.
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Instead, the chemical analysis of the leaves identified a group of phytochemicals known as guggulterols which have been observed in a related species called Commiphora wightii that’s known to possess certain cancer-fighting properties in its resin.
A medicinal balm, the origin of which is not known, is mentioned in multiple historical texts including the Bible as ‘tsori,’ and rather than the fragrant Judean Balsam, it’s this tsori that Dr. Sallon and her team believe they have found.
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They must wait until the tree, now 14 years old, produces flower or fruit to know for sure if it’s an extinct species, and if so, how to perhaps keep it alive.
Dr. Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed and stress biology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that it was a major accomplishment to grow a seed that old and possibly lead to a resurrection of this Biblical botanical.
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“What’s surprising in this story is it was just a single seed and to be able to have one chance for that to germinate is extremely lucky,” she said.
“Working in a seed bank, seeing the potential for that extreme longevity gives us hope that banking and storing seeds that some at least will survive for very long periods of time.”
SHARE This Absolutely Unbelievable Accomplishment In Biblical Botany…
Editor’s note: a previous version of this story claimed that Dr. Sallon was responsible for the germination of the plant. Dr. Elaine Sollowey, of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, was responsible for germinating and growing the plant.
NASA has seen some outstanding recent successes in robotic exploration over the past 20 years, but now the agency’s flagship explorer—the largest spacecraft ever built for planetary science—is poised for launch.
Delayed by chip shortages, budget negotiations, and soon-to-arrive Hurricane Milton, Europa Clipper has now only to pick the perfect conditions between the October 10th arrival of Milton and the end of the current launch window of November 6th to start its nearly 6-year journey to our solar system’s largest planet.
The target is also one of the largest moons in the solar system—Europa. It’s about the size of our Moon, but dwarfed by the Jovian Moons Io and Ganymede. However, in the field of planetary science, size doesn’t always matter.
Europa is all but guaranteed to hold an ocean—more voluminous than Earth’s—hidden under a surface layer of ice. That global glacier is believed to keep the vicious radioactive environment of Jovian orbit at bay from affecting the water below.
An off-world ocean would be the best place in the solar system to look for signs of life, but Europa Clipper isn’t just an astrobiology mission. Part of Europa Clipper’s mission is instead to assess the habitability of the planet.
This massive spacecraft, weighing as much as a bull elephant and stretching as tall as the Statue of Liberty when its solar arrays are unfolded, will be armed with 8 science instruments for studying gas, dust, and geology, ice-penetrating radar to plumb the depths of the sub-surface ocean, a magnetometer to understand Europa’s gravity, a thermal instrument to search for warmer pockets of ocean, and a spectrograph.
It’s been an exceptionally long time coming for this spacecraft, and Laurie Leshin, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says it’s akin to a “modern cathedral.”
“They are generational quests,” she said of missions like Europa Clipper. “We scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20 years. We’ve been working to build it for 10 years,” and will take another 5.5 years for it to arrive at Jupiter to begin its work, she told Euro News.
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The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter rather than the moon itself. This is because Europa sits within the most extreme point in Jupiter’s “particle accelerator” atmosphere, which creates channels of charged particles that would expose the craft to something like one million chest X-rays worth of radiation.
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Rather than expose the craft to this punishing energetic environment constantly, it will instead absorb that amount during each fly-by, of which it will conduct 49 during the normal mission phase, amounting to 80 orbital revolutions of Jupiter.
“These flybys cover both hemispheres of the moon and a variety of latitudes to get us near-global coverage of the moon for the science instruments,” said Jordan Evans, a project manager for Europa Clipper at JPL.
WATCH a hype-up/explainer video from NASA below…
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Quote of the Day: “Happiness comes from being who you actually are, instead of who you think you’re supposed to be.” – Shonda Rhimes
Photo by: Noman Khan
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Picture it: you’re happily sitting aboard a plane and the pilot falls over unconscious.
It’s the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood movies, but for one Californian, it was all too real.
On what was supposed to be a flight from Las Vegas to Monterrey, the twin-engine aircraft was diverted to Bakersfield before the pilot went into cardiac arrest.
A “brave” female passenger took the helm and received instructions from Kern County air traffic control tower at the airport at Meadows Field, where county airport director Ron Brewster spoke to NBC about the ordeal.
“We were able to get fire, ambulance and everybody on stand-by so as the aircraft came to a stop they were getting medical attention in seconds,” he said.
Audio released by the Kern County Airport Authority captures some of the instructions given to the passenger who was instructed to keep her airspeed at around 132 mph.
Both GNN and Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters have shown that passengers possessing no flight experience whatsoever can be talked into landing a plane successfully.
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The best thing to do in the situation is to get in contact with an air traffic controller.
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The name of the woman has not been released, nor details about how many were on the flight, but Brewster said she was dealing with the tragedy as best she could, referring to the unfortunate ending that the pilot took the 7:30 a.m. non-stop to heaven, and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
WATCH the story below from NBC…
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Two UK safari parks have completed a rhino swap, trading a captive-born male ready to breed for a feisty female who’s off to where her sister lives.
The male is believed to have the necessary genetics to sire many healthy rhinos, which zookeepers said should go a long way towards helping keep the species intact.
Bonnie, a two-ton southern white rhino, has already arrived at West Midlands Safari Park while the male, Granville, made his way to Woburn Safari Park, in Bedfordshire.
Granville was born at West Midlands Park in 2018 to a mother rhino named Ailsa, who coincidentally is also Bonnie’s sister, meaning the swap reunited the sisters who had never met before.
The two parks say they hope their collaborative efforts will go some way to preserving the genetic diversity of the species, which despite being the world’s most numerous rhino, is still considered by the IUCN to be Threatened.
“It has been bittersweet for the team,” said Head Zookeeper of ungulates at West Midlands Safari Park, Lisa Watkins. “We have all enjoyed watching him grow up from a cute little tank running around the safari, excited to meet the other species in his habitat, to the character he is today.”
“We will miss him coming up for a fuss in the mornings, but… look forward to hearing that he has become a father in the future and to visiting him in his new home. We are proud to have played a huge part in the future conservation of the species.”
Speaking of the new, 8-year-old arrival Bonnie Watkins said she has settled in well now and has been mixed with most members of the herd so far.
“She has been out on safari enjoying the mud wallow and meeting the other animals.
To the east, Rhino Keeper at Woburn Safari Park, Zack Turner, shared the sympathies of the West Midlands Park team upon the loss of Bonnie.
STATE OF THE RHINOS:
“She’s a great rhino to work with and has so much personality. Although it’s sad to see her go, the chance to hopefully have a breeding group of rhinos, with the introduction of Granville is something that excites us all,” he told the British news media outlet, SWNS.
“With white rhinos being a species that face a lot of struggles out in the wild, breeding them here at Woburn would be a great step in the right direction for their conservation.”
Since arriving at the park, Bonnie has taken some time settling in and getting to know the other rhinos in neighboring paddocks in the rhino house. She met her sister Ailsa for the first time and the park said the pair displayed some sibling rivalry right off the bat.
The pair greeted each other with a short pushing match which lasted for a minute or two before they went off to share some hay together.
Both Ailsa and Bonnie started life at yet another safari park in the UK called Blair Drummond, in Scotland—which seems awfully cold for rhinos.
SHARE This Delightful Life And Times Of Captive Rhinos…
From Spain in the west to Cyprus in the east, the Mediterranean has witnessed a record rise in sea turtle nesting.
It’s taken immense dedication, benefited from technological advances, and needed a long time to come to fruition; nowhere is this truer than on the Greek island of Zakynthos, described as the largest loggerhead turtle maternity ward in the Med.
Since 2023, Greece has recorded over 10,000 sea turtle nests on its beaches, up from averages of 6,000 during the 21st century.
“Throughout the 2000s, we were registering annual declines of about 6% on Crete, for example,” said Dr. Aliki Panagopoulou, research coordinator for Archelon, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece.
“Now we are looking at a dramatic increase in nest numbers, the result of decades of conservation efforts. Our strategy has always been to make sure that as many hatchlings as possible get to the water and are recruited to the population,” he added, speaking with the Guardian.
Dr. Panagopoulou was just one of several scientists and activists speaking with the Guardian about the news of the explosion in turtle nesting numbers. In addition to the rise in nests, there has been a large rise in the numbers of sea turtle hatchlings surviving into adulthood—which under normal circumstances is about 1 in 1,000.
Turtles tagged with radio wave-trackers at birth are now coming back to beaches around Zakynthos to nest—20, sometimes 25 years after the fact.
In some parts of the island, such as Sekania beach, there is one nest for every 50 square centimeters of sand.
Some beaches are strictly monitored during nesting season—a tactic also used in Florida, where sea turtle numbers have been growing steadily for years—and the installation of CCTV cameras has helped keep turtle protection teams alert to the massed presence of predators like ghost crabs and seagulls.
In 2022, Georgia recorded an all-time record of loggerhead sea turtle nests on its beaches, with 5 short of 4,000.
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In 2023, Palm Beach County saw over 20,000 nests—a nesting rate never seen before on several beaches.
African turtle havens Seychelles and Cape Verde have also seen massive increases in the numbers of turtle nests this decade. Cape Verde recorded 200,000 sea turtle nests in 2020. The nation has worked incredibly hard to cut down on poaching of turtles and their eggs.
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Like Cape Verde, the Seychelles saw their nesting numbers rebound substantially from lows of around 10,000, and the atoll of Aldabara is now the second-largest green sea turtle rookery in East Africa.
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Excavations on a pre-Inca site in northern Peru revealed the presence of a throne room where court was held by a woman.
Unfairly obscured by the glory of the Incan Empire, the medieval Moche Culture are known as prolific builders and inspired artists, but it was during this season’s excavations that a startling revelation was made.
Among the remains of the archaeological site known as Pañamarca, a throne room richly decorated with murals has been dug up. The murals are nothing new, because at Pañamarca, there’s not one surface that’s bare, to quote one archaeologist on the dig team.
But this time the murals threw up a surprise—images of a queen, a high priestess, or female god, dominated the depictions. Sometimes receiving lines of people, sometimes sitting on a throne, and other times wielding a scepter—signs of a sovereign almost everywhere, the queen of Pañamarca has breathed new life into the study of this antique culture.
In the shadows of the Aztecs, Inca, and Maya, many other great cultures, civilizations, and even empires flourished in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. The Moche Culture, with a heartland that rested around modern-day Trujillo in coastal northwest Peru, is just one of these peoples.
Existing from about 350 CE to 850 CE, the Moche painted every square inch of surface area on their large adobe temples and palaces with intricate murals. The most famous finds associated with the Moche are the Temples of the Sun and Moon a short drive from Trujillo.
In contrast to this important site and tourist attraction, Pañamarca is still under excavation, and is under the responsibility of the Archaeological Landscapes of Pañamarca, who released a statement on the discovery.
The adobe throne was found within what project director Jessica Ortiz Zevallos has named the “Hall of the Moche Imaginary” (Sala del Imaginario Moche). It is surrounded by walls and pillars depicting four different scenes of a powerful woman.
SOUTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY:
Prior seasons of the project’s research documented a bevy of painted surfaces within this hall, including paintings of elegantly dressed men and women, human-animal hybrid warriors with spider, deer, canid, and serpent features, and multiple battles between the Moche mythic hero and his enemies from the sea.
The powerful woman painted on the walls and pillars of the throne room—as well as on the interior surfaces of the throne itself—is associated with the crescent moon, with the sea and its creatures, and with the arts of spinning and weaving.
Mural paintings uncovered in July include a rare scene of an entire workshop of women spinning and weaving, as well as a procession of men carrying textiles and the female leader’s crown, complete with her braids.
Scholars will debate whether the woman painted on the walls of the throne room is human or mythical (a priestess, goddess, or queen). But the physical evidence of the throne, including the erosion to its back support and the recovery of greenstone beads, fine threads, and even human hair, make clear that it was occupied by a real living person—and the evidence all points to a seventh-century woman leader of Pañamarca.
“Pañamarca continues to surprise us,” says Lisa Trever, an art historian at Columbia University, in the statement, “not only for the ceaseless creativity of its painters but also because their works are overturning our expectations of gender roles in the ancient Moche world.”
The project’s excavations on Pañamarca’s plaza have also revealed a monumental structure that was entirely unknown to prior research. The Hall of the Braided Serpents (Sala de las Serpientes Trenzadas) was also built with wide square pillars. Many of these pillars were arrayed with paintings of intertwining serpents with human legs—a motif not seen elsewhere in Moche art.
Other surfaces were decorated with images of warriors, anthropomorphized weapons, and a large monster chasing a man. The Hall of the Braided Serpents underwent multiple renewal events that included copious material offerings—most notably textiles—burning events, the careful capping of floors, and the whitewashing of previously decorated walls.
“Perched above the plaza, this hall offered a prominent position—almost like box seats at a theater or stadium—from which to observe the goings-on down below, while it also provided private spaces for its privileged occupants,” explains archaeologist Michele L. Koons of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
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Quote of the Day: “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” – Jack Dempsey
Photo by: Katrina Berban
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Humans aren’t the only ‘loved ones being rescued in the wake of Hurricane Helene destruction.
The situation looked desperate for a dog that lived in Jonesboro, Tennessee, when flooding overtook her home—and her family almost gave up hope that she had survived.
But on Wednesday, October 2, after the Nolichucky River receded, the Kingsport Fire Department was out surveying the wreckage with a team of rescue workers.
A K9 dog was helping search for casualties when he began barking uncontrollably.
“The bloodhound was walking, and then started going crazy,” Capt. Zach Helvey told WCYB News.
“I just happened to look up in the tree and, it was like, ‘oh my God, there’s a dog in the tree.’”
The rescue team found a ladder in the debris and used it to climb up—where they lured the pup with food, straight into a firefighter’s arms.
Back on the ground, Athena was cuddling with all the rescuers. “She was thanking us,” said Zach.
The fire department shared images of their dog rescue on Facebook, and Athena’s family spotted the video.
“I was weeping, I was laughing. I was so happy,” the owner said.
YOUTH to The RESCUE: N. Carolina Youth Pulls Couple and Dog from Pickup Truck Sinking in Floodwaters
Despite watching their home float away ‘like an ark’, they described the reunion with their pooch as “a light at the end of the tunnel.”
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After Hurricane Helene slammed into the Southeastern US, the governors in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Virginia said they are getting government assistance with their emergency response efforts, and most of the officials have praised the FEMA government action so far.
“It’s been superb,” said SC Gov. Henry McMaster. “We’re getting assistance, and we’re asking for everything we need.”
In hardest-hit North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday their priority is still search and rescue efforts, with 92 teams currently deployed who are still bringing people to safety. Meanwhile, supplies are being flown into Asheville, NC by the federal FEMA managers.
“They’ve delivered a million liters of water and 600,000 meals (and) we have sent out hundreds of pallets to 20 different locations throughout Western North Carolina.”
“It’s been amazing to see the work that’s going on,” said Cooper, describing it as an “unprecedented massive effort being coordinated among local, state, and federal governments and nonprofits.”
One of those nonprofits has become a key to both search-and-rescue and getting supplies to people without water or electricity. Operation Airdrop, a collection of aviators who fly into disaster zones, reported that its nationwide membership logged nearly 600 “missions” in the first two days in North Carolina and Tennessee.
“I’m retired. I’m available. So I came,” said Griffith who flew in his airplane from Ohio. (Watch the video below from WFMY.)
Operating from an airport in Hickory, NC, helicopter pilots—from privately owned choppers to US Army Hueys and Blackhawks—were buzzing in and out for days.
Several of the pilots helped move over 100 nursing home residents, some with dementia, that had been stuck in Burnsville, NC because the facilities were running out of resources, especially medicine.
Yesterday, FedEx flew in a Boeing 757 loaded with 60,000 pounds of humanitarian relief aid for western North Carolina, along with 3 trucks to help deliver them.
Honda has donated a half million dollars to the relief fund of the American Red Cross, which also received $1 million from Lockheed Martin.
Dolly Parton, along with her theme parks, will partner with Walmart to provide significant donations to flood relief across Appalachia—with Walmart giving $10 million immediately, and Dolly making a personal donation of $1 million, telling reporters “We’re all here to mend these broken hearts.”
NFL quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield have donated $50,000 each to Team Rubicon, a Veteran-based nonprofit that deploys its crews of vets into natural disaster sites.
The NFL football family as a whole is also providing $8 million in support, led by contributions from the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the NFL Foundation.
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The regional power company, Duke Energy, is implementing a temporary solution so Asheville neighborhoods without electricity don’t have to wait for their substation, which was ruined in the storm, to be “completely rebuilt”. The company said it will take them three to four months to replace this key piece of infrastructure.
Special crews drove in a 200,000-pound mobile substation from across North Carolina that will restore power to thousands, as soon as this weekend. Other mobile substations are also being mobilized in Western counties.
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A radical new fabric that enables temperature-controlled clothing was inspired by squid—and allows for user-adjusted warmth, according to scientists.
Current athletic clothing brands boast temperature-controlling fabrics that may adapt to every climate, with lightweight but warm products. However, American researchers wanted to create a fabric that the wearer can adjust to the specific temperature they need.
Inspired by the color-changing properties of squid skin, researchers from the University of California in Irvine developed a method to manufacture a heat-adjusting material that is breathable—and washable—and can be integrated into the flexible fabric.
“Squid skin is complex, consisting of multiple layers that work together to manipulate light and change the animal’s overall coloration and patterning,” explained Professor Alon Gorodetsky.
“Some of the layers contain organs called chromatophores, which transition between expanded and contracted states, upon muscle action, to change how the skin transmits and reflects visible light.”
Instead of manipulating visible light, the team engineered a revolutionary composite material that operates in the infrared spectrum, because when people heat up they emit some of their heat as invisible, infrared radiation.
Clothing that manipulates and adapts to this emission and is fitted with thermoregulatory features can finely adjust to the desired temperature of the wearer.
According to the research published in the journal APL Bioengineering, the material consists of a polymer covered with copper islands, and stretching it separates the islands and changes how it transmits and reflects infrared light.
Gorodetsky, who authored the paper, says the innovation creates the possibility of controlling the temperature of a garment.
In previous research, also published in APL Bioengineering, the team modeled their composite material’s adaptive infrared properties. Now they have built on the material to increase its functionality by making it washable, breathable, and integrated into fabric.
The researchers layered a thin film onto the composite to enable easy washing without degradation, a practical consideration for any fabric.
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To make the composite material breathable, the team perforated it, producing an array of holes. The resulting product exhibited air and water vapor permeability similar to cotton fabrics. The researchers then adhered the material to a mesh to demonstrate straightforward fabric integration.
They tested the material’s adaptive infrared properties and used a sweating guarded hot plate (SGHP) installed in a custom chamber to test the dynamic thermoregulatory properties.
Even with simultaneous thin-film layering, perforations, and fabric integration, the materials’ heat-managing performance did not suffer.
“Our advanced composite material now opens opportunities for most wearable applications but may be particularly suited for cold weather clothing like ski jackets, thermal socks, insulated gloves, and winter hats,” said Gorodetsky.
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He says that as well as the possible applications for the fabric, the manufacturing process the team used to develop the fabric is also full of potential.
“The strategies used for endowing our materials with breathability, washability, and fabric compatibility could be translated to several other types of wearable systems, such as washable organic electronics, stretchable e-textiles, and energy-harvesting triboelectric materials.”
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More dog owners had an “instant connection” with their pet than with their own partners, according to a new poll.
The survey of 2,000 dog owners who are in serious relationships revealed that 87% were more likely to believe in “love at first sight” with their animals, compared to people.
80% of respondents said they had an immediate connection with their dog, compared to 69% who said the same for their partner.
Still, one in five said it took time to build a bond with their dog. A few had questioned whether they made the right decision in adopting their pet because they didn’t have an instant connection.
But the wait was worth it: 74% said the bond between them and their dog is stronger because they built it over time.
And, 76% said food is their “love language” and they take great care in feeding their dog.
Commissioned by The Honest Kitchen and conducted by Talker Research, the survey asked respondents if there was anything they wished they knew, ahead of adopting their dog.
Some respondents wished they would have known “the true investment of time” that comes with having a dog—and how “They are literally like raising children.”
“It feels like watching a child grow up, but you know you’re going to outlive them,” said one of those surveyed.
The love they have for their dogs surprised one respondent, who wished they’d had a clue about the amount of joy they bring, saying, “I would have gotten one sooner.”
In fact, despite the challenges, 83% of respondents said the pet ownership experience is even better than expected. And the same number agreed that while it’s messy and not always easy, they wouldn’t change their experience with their dog for anything.
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“There’s so much to look forward to when you have a dog, but we wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t acknowledge how hard it can be, too,” said Miki Dosen, CMO at The Honest Kitchen.
“It’s important to remember that no two pets are the same—so whether it’s your first pet or your fifth, pet parents are likely in for some surprises along the way.”
“At the end of the day it’s the full experience—both highs and lows—that make it one of the most meaningful relationships people have in their lives.”
